


Wolf in Wolf's Clothing

by Fangirlwriting



Series: Self Preservation [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Amnesia, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders Needs a Hug, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders is a Little Shit, Check Authors Notes on Chapters for Additional Warnings, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders Needs a Hug, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders Needs a Hug, Gen, Give Everyone A Hug I Put Them Through Too Much, Missing Persons, Possession
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-19 04:27:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29869140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fangirlwriting/pseuds/Fangirlwriting
Summary: Virgil has been feeling far more anxious than he should lately, but he cannot for the life of him figure out the reason.  He's checked on all four other sides, even Remus, and they all seem to be fine, so what's the issue?
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Deceit | Janus Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Logic | Logan Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Original Character(s)
Series: Self Preservation [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2196006
Comments: 18
Kudos: 48





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, and welcome to my newest story! Just a heads up, because this story has so few chapters, I'm going to post one weekly on Saturday, until it's done, instead of my usual three day breaks.
> 
> And credit for the prompt that inspired this story goes to my friend Duality, username Ptolomeia!

Everyone else had reassured him too many times that everything was fine, to the point where the phrase was starting to be meaningless. Virgil wasn’t sure why this week in particular was attempting to murder him in regards to anxiety, but he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what was wrong.

He’d done all of his usual methods that usually calmed him down, which was mostly checking on each of the sides.

He started with Patton, who was in the kitchen when he found him, baking cookies.

“Hey, kiddo!” Patton called, glancing over from where he was mixing in a bowl. He set the whisk down and turned to face him. “Did you need something?”

“Just… wanted to check on you,” Virgil said.

Patton gave him a confused look. “Well, thanks kiddo, but I’m doing alright!”

“I know, I just…”

“Oh,” Patton realized. “Still having a bad anxiety day?”

“Bad anxiety week,” Virgil muttered. “You promise, you’re not hurt, or upset, or hiding it or something?”

“I’m okay, Virgil. I promise.”

Virgil nodded. He still didn’t want to leave. “Can we… uh, can I just stay here while you bake? Or could I help you?”

Patton smiled brightly. “That sounds wonderful, kiddo. You want to get the cookie sheets ready? The oven’s already preheating.”

Virgil found the cookie sheets in the cabinet and pulled out the baking paper to put on top of them.

“Alright, I’m about to use the hand mixer kiddo, it’ll be loud.”

“Okay,” Virgil said, grateful for the warning. He turned to watch as Patton turned it on so the noise would be expected before he turned back around to the cookie sheets. Patton finished mixing a couple seconds later and brought the batter over, hand mixer still inside.

“You wanna lick one of the beaters?” Patton asked, offering it to Virgil. Virgil accepted it as he took the other one, and they both took a minute to lick the batter off and stick them in the sink before turning back to the batter that would be made into actual cookies, which Patton had started to make into dough.

It took them about ten minutes to get the dough on the pan with Patton interrupting with puns and a couple times trying to eat some. It brought an easy, happy feeling over the room, and although Virgil didn’t really feel much less anxious, he still enjoyed spending time with Patton as he always did. And hey, he also got to eat batter out of it.

They ate the cookies after along with Roman and Logan, which is when Virgil used the leftovers as an excuse to check on a different side that he wouldn’t normally have an excuse to talk to.

“Remus?”

“Virgin!”

Virgil glanced up at the ceiling to find Remus hanging there by his tentacles.

“You finally decide to take me up on my offer of a one night stand?” Remus asked, dropping down from the ceiling to land in front of it.

“Ew. No. I just wanted to give you some cookies. Patton and I made them, and it felt weird if everyone gets some but you.”

“Aww, you  _ love me, _ ” Remus crooned.

Virgil rolled his eyes. “I could just drop these on the floor.”

“Don’t bother, I got it!” Remus cried, yanking the plate from Virgil’s hands and dumping it on the floor before ducking down to pick up the cookies and start eating them.

“Yeah, okay, you’re fine,” Virgil muttered, rolling his eyes as he turned to head back to the other side of the mindscape.

“Aww, Virgin!”

Virgil turned back around.

“You’re not gonna stay for a cookie?”

“The ones you just dropped on the floor? No thanks. I already had some earlier.”

“Well then come watch Saw with me!”

Virgil groaned inwardly even as he considered that. He didn’t hate horror movies, and he could stomach a gory one every now and then, but right now was definitely not one of those times. Not when he was jumping at every loud noise and wasn’t getting enough sleep already. But then again, even if Virgil would never admit it, when it came to Remus he… he worried.

He didn’t worry too much, it was still Remus after all, and he still freaked him out and pissed him off more than anything else. But he knew how it felt to be alone. He had felt that way after he’d left the dark side but before he was accepted by Thomas. It’s not like Remus had a ton of amazing company nowadays, and showing up and annoying all of them had to get boring  _ eventually, _ even for him. So, Virgil still made something of an effort to include him at least a little, hence the cookies.

He looked back at Remus, who seemed to be taking the fact that Virgil hadn’t spoken yet as a hopeful sign. He sighed. “Not Saw,” he said. “I don’t have the stomach for it right now. Could you agree to The Shining?”

Remus groaned.  _ “Fine.” _

They headed into the living room and sat on the couch as Remus put The Shining on and started eating a cookie. Virgil tried hard to ignore the hairs he was pretty sure he saw on it. The movie passed mostly with Remus commenting on how exactly the parts could have worked differently to make it more interesting or scary or bloody, to the point where Virgil was pretty sure watching Saw wouldn’t have made much of a difference and he definitely should have just gone back to his room to try to sleep with his normal levels of fear-inducing thoughts.

But eventually the movie ended, and Virgil headed back to the other side of the mindscape with a quick goodnight to Remus.

He hadn’t had time to put away the clothes that were left on his chair from Patton doing the laundry, meaning it took him another couple hours to fall asleep when it looked like someone was sitting there ready to stab him every time he turned off the light. He drifted into an uneasy sleep around four in the morning, and woke up close to eleven with his anxiety levels no lower than when he’d fallen asleep.

He saw Roman on his way to the kitchen, working on something in the living room, on the couch.

“Morning, Roman,” Virgil said as he passed him.

“Good morning, sunshine, you look quite tired this morning. Did you not get enough sleep?”

“I watched The Shining with Remus and spent four hours thinking there was a serial killer in my room with me,” Virgil said. “You know, the usual.”

“Ah, fair enough,” Roman said, turning back to what looked like a drawing he was working on.

Virgil hesitated before heading into the kitchen. “Roman?”

“Yes?”

“My anxiety’s been bothering me a lot lately. Do you know of something wrong that could be setting it off?”

“Do you mean with me? No,” Roman said. “I’ve actually been feeling alright, lately.”

“I meant in general too, but that’s good to know,” Virgil said, turning to head into the kitchen.

No one was in there this late in the morning, and he took the mostly-cold-at-this-point coffee pot and poured himself a cup. He downed the cup quickly and started peeling an orange that he could eat before lunch. He’d just poured himself a second cup of cold coffee when Logan walked in.

“Good morning, Virgil.”

“Morning, Lo,” Virgil grumbled, rubbing at his eyes again.

“Are you alright? It’s a little late in the morning to be tired.”

“I’m panicking for no reason,” Virgil said, taking another drink of coffee.

“Yes, so I’ve heard. Any reason why your anxiety is acting up this week in particular?”

“No,” Virgil said, setting his coffee down and running a hand through his hair. “I’m open to theories, though.”

“I don’t have much of an idea,” Logan said. “I have some options you could try to lessen your anxiety.”

“Usually going around and checking on everyone else helps with that. I either find the reason I’m anxious or reassure myself that I’m panicking for nothing. But for once, everyone seems to be doing okay. I did a sweep of the mindscape yesterday too, and I didn’t find anything suspicious or worrisome.” Virgil looked up at Logan. “I don’t suppose something is wrong with you?”

“Not to my knowledge,” Logan said, adjusting his glasses. “Have you tried brainstorming with Roman? That seems to have taken your mind off your worries in the past.”

“Roman’s drawing, there’s nothing to brainstorm,” Virgil mumbled. “And I already tried baking cookies with Patton, which I guess helped a little at the time, but not after. I watched The Shining with Remus, which in retrospect was a horrible idea.”

“That seems ill-advised, yes,” Logan said. He seemed to think for a minute. “What about cleaning your room?”

“Huh?”

“I find that sort of thing helps me. Putting everything where it’s supposed to be, and probably for you finding a way to get rid of any worrying shadows.”

Virgil chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. “What are you talking about, I never have to deal with anything like that.”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to, of course,” Logan said, completely disregarding his previous statement. “But if your regular methods aren’t working, trying something new could help.”

“You might be right,” Virgil muttered, turning the idea over in his head. He could probably do with cleaning his room anyway, and if this didn’t work, he could ask the other sides for ideas. It was at the very least a good place to start.

Virgil finished his second cup of coffee and headed back upstairs to try cleaning his room. It was a mess even on a good day, and Virgil took a moment to stare at the clutter everywhere, trying to pick a place to start. Oh god, how was he supposed to know where to start? There was so much stuff everywhere. Virgil sighed and grumbled a little to himself, because seriously, could he stop being anxious about everything for two seconds? Even he was starting to get irritated by it.

“Virgil?”

Virgil spun around to see Logan standing in his doorway.

“Why don’t you start with your desk?” Logan said, with a knowing smile and a raised eyebrow.

Virgil grinned a little sheepishly. “Uh. Thanks, Logan.”

“Anytime.”

Virgil headed over to his desk and started shifting around the books and papers sitting on it. He eventually gathered all of the books and moved them over to set them on his bookshelf. He put most of them on top of the books already there, he could reorganize the bookshelf itself at a later date. He put all of the papers inside one of the desk drawers that he could also organize at a later date. He then moved to start picking up all of the clothes on his floor.

Most of the clothes sitting on his floor or chair had already been washed and he just hadn’t worn them yet. Unfortunately, some of the ones sitting on the actual floor and not just on top of other clothes had been there for a while at this point, so he put most of those in the hamper and finally moved all of the other clothes into his dresser.

He glanced at all of the various items on his dresser and promptly decided he would do that another day. That left his floor clean and his desk clean, leaving the last major spot he should probably do today to be the space under his bed.

Oh, this would be fun. He hadn’t cleaned there in years.

All of the clothes he pulled out were too covered in dust to not go straight in the hamper, and most of the papers and books he set on the floor by his bookshelf to be dusted before he decided what to do with them. Thankfully, that seemed to be all that was there, except for something in the corner that Virgil couldn’t quite make out. He reached blindly for it and tried his best to ignore the screams of  _ It’s a knife it’s attached to a hand this is the serial killer you’re about to get fucking murdered— _

It ended up being a small wooden toy. It was covered in dust, enough that Virgil couldn’t quite make it out at first.

“Ew,” he mumbled, standing up to go wash it off in the bathroom. He turned on the water and hoped that all the dust washing off of it wouldn’t be enough to clog the sink.

The toy ended up being one of those small flexible wooden snakes, with faded yellow paint and small, worn-over carves in the area where the eyes should be.

“What the hell is this,” Virgil said to the empty bathroom. “And why was it under my bed?”

Virgil turned the snake over in his hands and started back across to his room as he kept looking at it. Now that he thought about it, it did look rather familiar. Virgil opened his door, sat on his bed, and continued to stare at it, biting his lip.

Well, he was right, it had clearly been way too long since he’d cleaned underneath his bed. Years had been what he’d thought, right? Could that mean this was from before? This certainly looked like a toy he could have had in his childhood.

Wait, hang on, why was that the case? Remus hadn’t ever had a particular love for snakes over any other kind of animal. Honestly, he’d been more fond of octopuses, and Virgil had liked spiders. But he couldn’t think of another explanation for a wooden snake toy being under his bed than the idea that it had been something he’d had as a child, and he’d kept it when he’d come to the other side of the mindscape and left Remus.

Remus… Remus and  _ Janus. _

Virgil’s eyes widened, and he dropped the snake to the floor like it had burned him. “Okay,” he said weakly to the toy laying innocently on the ground. “What. The hell.”

Well. He supposed that offered an explanation as to why he’d been feeling anxious as fuck. Virgil snatched the toy off the ground again and sunk out to the commons where Remus could be found residing, and Janus with him— until this week, apparently.

**_“REMUS!”_ ** Virgil screamed, his voice amplifying without him really intending it to.

There were a couple moments of silence before a door opened in the hallway and Remus appeared. “Virgey? Whaddaya want, it’s…” he glanced over at a clock on the wall. “Three in the morning. Aren’t you normies all supposed to be asleep by now?”

Virgil grabbed Remus’ hand and turned to the other side of the hallway, where Janus’ door was supposed to be.

Nothing was there. Why was nothing there? Virgil spun around.  **“Remus, where’s Janus?”**

“Who? Is that one of Roman’s creations? I’m pretty sure he kills those if they get boring.”

**“No, that’s what** **_you_ ** **do,”** Virgil snapped, shoving Remus backwards which resulted in him banging into the other wall. Maybe that was a little mean, but he had discovered the reason that he was panicking and it  _ very much did not help, thank you. _

Remus seemed to at least pick up on the fact that he was panicking, and he seemed to care enough that he leaned forward and grabbed onto Virgil’s arms. “Okay, shit, uh, take a deep breath? You okay, V-emo?”

**“Where the hell did he go?”** Virgil got out through gritted teeth.  **“We’re inside Thomas’** **_head,_ ** **it’s not like he could fucking run away!”**

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about!” Remus exclaimed, starting to sound a little freaked out himself, which was saying something for Remus.

Virgil took a couple seconds to try and breathe, and choked on a couple before he managed to at least calm down enough that he was pretty sure he could get his voice under control. “Did he duck out?” he asked, more to himself than to Remus. “Wouldn’t everyone still remember him if he ducked out? Wouldn’t Thomas be affected in some way?”

“What are you talking about?” Remus asked, sounding very concerned now.

Virgil looked back across at Remus, who was still staring at him in confusion and concern. He looked down at his hands, where he was still clutching the snake. The one Janus had given him when he was little. He’d kept it as a reminder when he’d left, and had needed something to remind him of what had then still been home.

“Virgil,” Remus said. The lack of a nickname surprised him enough that he looked up. Remus looked concerned in a way that made Virgil concerned for him back. “Virgil, look, it’s really late, okay? You should go to bed.”

“You first,” Virgil muttered.

“Fair enough, but seriously. I could always tie you down to your bed if you want to get kinky with it.”

“Ew, Remus.” Virgil rubbed at the space between his eyes. “How am I supposed to go to bed now, I have to do something about Janus.”

“You do know Roman and I’s creations aren’t actually real, right?”

“He’s not—” Virgil took a deep breath. “Okay. I guess I won’t be much good to him if I’m exhausted.”

“Yeah, exactly! See?”

Virgil shot Remus half a glare before he sighed again. “Alright,” he said, giving a wave to Remus and getting one in return before sinking out to his room once again. He felt terrible going to sleep as if nothing was wrong, but there probably wasn’t much he could do right now anyway, and he was limited in what he could do for Janus on not-enough-hours of sleep.

He crawled into his bed and tucked the snake under his pillow for safekeeping before rolling over and shutting his eyes.

It would still take him a long time to fall asleep.

…

Virgil woke up to rapid knocking on his door. “Virgil!” called Patton from the other side. Virgil groaned and dragged himself out of bed, grabbing the snake and tucking it in his right pocket as he stumbled to the door. He pulled it open to find Patton standing there, looking incredibly excited.

“Patton?” Virgil asked through a yawn. “What’s going on?”

“New side!” Patton exclaimed.

That woke Virgil up. “What?”

“There’s a new side, Virgil! You have to come meet him, come on!” Patton grabbed onto Virgil’s hand and pulled him out of his room as Virgil processed what he’d just said.

He clutched the snake tighter in his pocket. New side? Was it possible that him remembering Janus existed had solved part of the problem?

Virgil was dragged into the edge of the kitchen and he took a minute to blink there and let his brain wake up before he looked up at the new side in the kitchen. His heart sunk.

Three sides were sitting at the kitchen table. Logan was drinking a cup of coffee, looking interested and writing things down in a notebook. Roman was excitedly talking to the new side, looking thrilled and fascinated that this was happening. And the new side was happily and confidently answering any questions the two had.

The new side himself was wearing a duster jacket, a wide-brim fedora, a button down shirt and dress pants, and had no scales. Virgil had no idea who this was.

He noticed Virgil and smiled, which resulted in Virgil deciding instantly that he did not like this side’s smile. “Hello, it’s lovely to meet you,” the side said, standing and walking across the room towards them. Patton beamed happily at the side from Virgil’s left.

The side stopped in front of Virgil and stuck out his hand. Virgil took another moment to take in the stranger in front of him before the stranger finally spoke again. “My name is Janus.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings at the end of the chapter.

Okay. So this was a different problem now.

Virgil looked down at Definitely-Not-Janus-What-The-Fuck’s hand that was still held out in front of him, probably waiting for Virgil to shake it.

Well, now it was speed processing time. Luckily, he was anxiety, which made him good at that kind of thing.

So. This was not Janus. That meant Janus was still missing, and likely also that no one remembered him still. He had no idea who the fuck this guy was or why he was trying to pretend he was Janus. What did he want? Did he know the actual Janus was missing? Was this his fault at all? Was this even a bad thing?

He didn’t know the answers to any of those questions, except the last one, which was probably  _ Yes this is a bad thing you may not like him but Janus is pretty fucking important! _

Maybe Not-Janus was hostile. Maybe if Virgil asked what was going on he would suddenly turn malicious, or angry, or get offended. Or maybe he wasn’t hostile. Maybe he would just get confused. Or maybe he knew everything that was going on and would politely answer any of Virgil’s questions as to what the fuck was.

That’s the problem, he didn’t know. He needed more information than this introduction had given him. What was the best way to get more information?

About a second went by as Virgil was thinking about all of this, and by that time he’d made a decision, at least for the time being.

“Virgil,” he said, shaking Not-Janus’ hand, and smiling anxiously because it would be weird if he didn’t look at least a little anxious. “I didn’t think Thomas could get a new side at this point.”

“I know, we were all surprised too!” Patton called in excitement. Virgil turned again to face him. “This is so cool, isn’t it?”

Virgil nodded, not having to fake the partially anxious look he kept at all. Patton continued to go on excitedly about how he’d woken up and found him in the living room, and eventually Virgil let him keep talking as he moved to get some coffee. He was going to need some today.

“Oh, just a reminder, someone should probably go tell Remus soon,” Logan remarked casually, and Virgil nearly spat out his coffee.

_ Shit. _

“I’ll do it!” Virgil called. “I mean I see him the most anyway, right?” He gave another hopefully-proper-levels-of-anxious smile before sinking out to the other commons.

Thankfully, Remus was already awake. He was putting something together in the kitchen that looked nothing like food, but he was already shoveling it into his mouth, so apparently that ship had sailed.

“Remus, hey!”

Remus turned to face him. “Hey, Shadow Monster! Did you find whoever it was you were looking for?”

“Yep! Totally did, all good now! By the way, do you think we can totally forget the conversation last night happened and never bring it up ever again?”

Remus tipped his head in confusion. “Huh?”

“There… there’s a new side,” Virgil said hesitantly. “Whose name happens to be Janus.”

“Woah, it’s like you can predict the future! Way to go, show me how?”

“Yeah, sure, whatever, I just don’t want you to freak him out due to saying that I thought he was missing… or something.”

“You want me to  _ refrain _ from freaking a side out?” Remus asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No, that’s setting the bar too high for you,” Virgil muttered. “Just… don’t mention our conversation last night in any way, alright?”

Remus gave him a look. “Are you sure that’s all that’s going on?”

“Yep. That’s it.”

Remus didn’t seem terribly convinced, but he shrugged. “Alright. I won’t say anything about your total freak out last night. Can I come meet this new side now?”

Virgil nodded, and they both sunk out to the other kitchen.

Remus spotted Not-Janus after a second and lit up. “Hey! You must be the newbie! I should probably inform you that all new sides are required to fuck me at least once before they can be truly accepted as a part of the mindscape.”

“Remus!” Patton exclaimed.

“That’s not true,” Roman said to Not-Janus, shooting an unamused glance at Remus. “You can ignore everything my brother says if you want to.”

“Rude!” Remus called, in the tone of voice that meant he was not at all offended.

Virgil watched Not-Janus for any kind of reaction and started to relax at least a little when he didn’t seem suspicious or even irritated in any way.

Remus headed back to eat his own breakfast a second later, and they all spent most of the rest of the breakfast talking to this new side, and Virgil was grateful that he didn’t have to ask him a ton of questions, because Patton seemed to be more than willing to take over that job for him.

So apparently Not-Janus’ name was Janus, he’d shown up this morning just before Patton found him in the living room, and he claimed to be a side meant for self-preservation.

“Uh… that’s my job,” Virgil said, trying not to sound territorial. Yes, his job overlapped with Janus, and while he had never been thrilled about that, it was definitely  _ much _ better than sharing his turf with Not-Janus.

“Virgil, don’t be rude,” Patton said, nudging him in the side.

“I think it’s different kinds of self preservation,” Not-Janus said, and Virgil almost scowled. “You’re the fight-or-flight reflex, right? That seems like more short term than the kind of things I deal with.”

“Which are?” Virgil asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Virgil! Okay seriously kiddo, you’re being rude,” Patton said, crossing his arms. “There’s no reason for treating Janus like he’s done something wrong.”

Virgil hesitated, because that was very much something he didn’t want to do. He’d rather stay on Not-Janus’ good side, at least until he had an actual reason not to. “You’re right,” he said hesitantly to Patton. “Sorry. I guess I’m just confused. We haven’t had a new side since… well, me.”

“It is quite fascinating,” Logan agreed. “I would love to take the day to ask you some questions, if that’s alright.”

“I would be happy to help,” Not-Janus said. “But actually, could I get a moment to speak with Virgil alone first?”

Well, Virgil was immediately about ten times more suspicious.

“Oh, of course!” Patton called, sounding a little confused. “Can I ask why?”

“I don’t want to become a part of the mindscape if a side thinks I’m trying to take over his territory. I’d just like a chance to explain to Virgil the kinds of things I deal with.”

“Ah, very well then,” Roman said, standing and ushering everyone else out of the room as if that made perfect sense. No one else got a chance to say anything else before he did so, and Virgil turned warily back to face Not-Janus.

The second Virgil heard the others’ footsteps fade completely, Not-Janus started scowling, and Virgil’s alarm bells went off.

“You thought I would be stupid enough not to realize when a side isn’t affected by me?”

“I’m sorry?”

“Don’t play dumb with me. You still remember the real Janus.”

Virgil dropped his innocent look and crossed his arms. “What are you?”

“Why are you unaffected? I’ve convinced everyone else that nothing is wrong.”

“I’m  _ anxiety, _ you idiot. Even when nothing actually is wrong I still think something’s wrong.”

“Hmm. Fair enough,” Not-Janus said. “But that makes you a problem.”

“A problem for  _ what? _ What do you want?”

“Well, eventually we’re going to replace all of you. Thomas is the short-term goal, he’s an easy target with the aspects of his personality being easy to directly change. He’s sort of a guinea pig, if you get what I mean. The long term goal is more complex, it’s honestly not entirely planned out yet.”

Virgil blinked at Not-Janus a couple of times. “You… you just told me that?”

“You asked.”

“Yeah, but I figured you’d say something like ‘as if I’d tell you’ and then stalk out of the room.”

“Oh please, why would I bother with something so petty?” Not-Janus said. “You’ll be out of the picture soon anyway.”

Virgil narrowed his eyes. “What does that mean?”

“It would likely be near impossible to convince you that nothing’s wrong. On the other hand, it would take no effort to convince them that something  _ is.” _ Not-Janus looked back towards the other room as he finished his statement, and Virgil’s eyes widened.

“What does that mean?” he asked, trying not to let show the way his chest tightened in panic.

Not-Janus smirked. “Let’s see how you do at defeating me when everyone else is mad enough to actively be working against you,” he said, and then walked casually from the room, leaving Virgil to start panicking.

…

Virgil had sprinted into the other room about five seconds after Not-Janus did, but apparently he could change everyone’s opinions of him pretty much simultaneously, because by the time Virgil got in there, Roman turned to glare at him, Logan gave a long sigh, and Patton gave that grimace smile that he used when he was displeased about what was happening.

Well.

Shit.

“Uh, hey, Patton,” Virgil called hesitantly, because Patton was probably the safest option out of the three of them. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

“Can it wait? We’re all a little occupied with the new side at the moment.”

“Uh… yeah, okay,” Virgil said weakly. He had different relationships he had to figure out now, again, and he wasn’t going to start by antagonizing  _ Patton _ of all sides right off the bat.

At least he could always count on Patton to keep his promises, even if it was to a side he didn’t like, so Patton showed up at his room a while later.

“So, what did you want to talk to me about?”

Virgil spun around and clutched the toy snake that now lived in his pocket a little tighter. It was so awesome that doing so was apparently becoming a reflex.

…Great. Now he was being sarcastic all the time like he was Janus. Whatever. Maybe that could summon him somehow.

“Patton! Hey! I was just… new side, huh?”

Patton smiled tightly. “Yes, we talked about all that this morning, didn’t we?”

“Yeah, I just…” Well, no point of beating around the bush when Patton was apparently mad at him already. “I’m not so sure he’s exactly… trustworthy.”

Patton sighed. “Look Virgil, you might not like how he shares a part of your job, but that’s no reason to antagonize Janus from the start.”

Virgil considered for half a second pointing out the hypocrisy of Patton being the one to say that, but he wouldn’t understand Virgil’s point anyway.

“Look, just… hear me out for a second—”

“Look, Virgil, I have to go make dinner, can we continue this conversation later?” Patton asked, then walked away before Virgil could reply.

Virgil almost went after him for a second, but stopped when he noticed Logan walking out of his own room across the commons.

“Hey, Logan!” he called, running out of his room and shutting his door behind him. “Can I talk to you?”

“I apologize, Virgil, but I’m terribly busy,” Logan said, and he walked into the kitchen. It was a couple seconds before Logan spoke up again. “Patton, do you need any help with dinner?”

Roman stepped out of his door a second later, and before Virgil could say anything, he gave him a glare and went right back inside it.

“Yeesh, what crawled up his ass and died?” came a familiar voice, and Virgil spun around, gripped the snake tighter, and found himself face to face with Remus.

“What… Remus?”

“Yeah. Why’s Ro-ro so mad at you all of a sudden?”

Virgil’s eyes widened. “Hang on. Are you… are you  _ not _ mad at me?”

Remus blinked at him. “Should I be? What’d ya do?”

Virgil stared at him for another moment before he grabbed Remus’ hand. “Come with me,” he said, and sunk them both out to the other commons.

Remus must have been trying to ruin the commons in the hours since he’d come back down here, because there was no way it could have gotten turned into this much of a wreck otherwise.

“Remus,” Virgil said, spinning around and grabbing Remus by the shoulders. “That new guy. Not— I mean, Janus.”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t trust him.”

“Do you trust anyone?”

“This is different!”

Remus shrugged. “You’ve known him for, what, five hours now? It even takes me longer to want to suck a new side’s dick.”

“Ew, Remus!”

“It’ll be fine,” Remus said. “Stop worrying.”

“You say to anxiety, as if that’s not insane,” Virgil muttered. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised by that either, given it was Remus that he was talking to.

What had Not-Janus said? He’d convinced everyone else that nothing was wrong? That must have applied to Remus too. It explained why no one remembered Janus, and why they were all so excited about this new side. Why Patton seemed to instantly accept him, when he had very much not been instantly accepting of new sides in the past. But how was he supposed to try and get help from Remus if he was just as dead set that nothing was wrong? It probably wasn’t a great sign that Remus was now his only option anyway.

Virgil sighed inwardly. It was time to get over that, and fast. It’s not like he had any other choices.

“Hey, Remus,” he said slowly. Remus turned from where he had gone back to ripping the couch cushion in half and revealing… Virgil didn’t even want to know what that stuff was that was coming out of it.

“Yeah?” Remus asked.

“Can I ask your advice on something?”

“On what?”

“I’m… writing a story.”

Remus raised an eyebrow. “And you don’t want to ask Roman?”

“Roman’s pissed at me for some reason, remember? You saw.”

Remus nodded. “Ah, so you come to visit your least favorite creativity.”

Virgil started. “What? I—”

“What’s wrong with your story?”

Virgil hesitated for a second, trying to gage if Remus was upset. He couldn’t tell. “Well, there’s this group,” he said after a second. “This main group, and they’ve been infiltrated by an impostor.”

“Ooh, fun!”

“Yeah. He… I don’t know, he kidnapped one of the other group members. Yeah, he did that. And he started impersonating him.”

Remus nodded. “‘Kay.”

“So one of the people in the group, uh, the protagonist, knows that the impostor is an impostor,” Virgil continued. “But he’s… uh, he’s the least favorite of everyone else in the group. And the impostor is manipulating the rest of the group so they don’t trust him.”

Remus frowned a little and nodded.

“I’m trying to figure out a way for the protagonist to defeat the impostor.”

“Huh,” Remus said. “Well, you’re not making it easy on him. No one trusts this guy?”

“…No one that can help,” Virgil said hesitantly.

“Okay, then it seems like his only real option is to fight fire with fire.”

“Huh?”

“Manipulate the rest of the group back,” Remus said, turning back to the couch cushion like that would be the end of the conversation.

“Oh god I don’t wanna do that— I mean I don’t— I don’t wanna make him do that.”

Remus sighed and pulled the sides of the cushion farther apart. “Can the protagonist find the actual kidnapped member of the team?”

“He’s… working on it. Probably not soon?”

“Then you have written yourself into a corner, Virgil,” Remus said, starting to dig around inside the cushion. “Rewrite the situation.”

“Yeah that’s… not an option.”

Remus dropped the couch cushion and gave Virgil a look. “Well then what do you want from me? Give the guy an ally then. If he doesn’t want to manipulate anyone back, then he has to have someone he can work with.”

He picked up another couch cushion and started ripping it.

Virgil looked down. “Okay, thanks Remus,” he said weakly.

“Let me know how it goes!” Remus called as Virgil sunk out to his room.

Virgil collapsed back on his bed with a nervous sigh and shoved his hands over his face. Was Remus right? He was in a tight situation, but it had just happened this morning. Surely there was something else he could try other than straight up manipulation. He’d been hated by the others before, what had he done then?

…He’d attempted to yell them into submission and gotten shot down every time. Unless he had someone else on his side like the time he’d been trying to convince Thomas to start being more responsible.

Well, shit.

Virgil pulled his snake out of his pocket and started absentmindedly rubbing at the eyes as he thought, which was honestly probably how the paint got so worn away.

He didn’t want to try and manipulate anyone, but if he didn’t have any allies or good will, if no one would be willing to help him otherwise…

Who knows what Not-Janus would do if left to his own devices. He couldn’t just do nothing. He couldn’t try something that he already knew wouldn’t work. Virgil squeezed the snake tighter and blew out a harsh breath.

Fuck, this… this wasn’t going to fun. But Remus was probably right. So what now?

…

Virgil’s first opportunity came a day later. He had managed not to piss anyone off past the baseline they’d seemed to start at by staying in his room, aside from going out and getting food and then vanishing into his room again.

Maybe he should stop putting off what he’d decided to do, but it’s not like he  _ wasn’t _ going to spend a day desperately trying to come up with some other kind of plan anyway. In case you were wondering, he didn’t get anywhere.

Which was why he found himself stepping into the living room after lunch and sitting on the chair that was the furthest from Logan. Logan gave him half a glance and rolled his eyes, turning his gaze back to the book he was reading.

Virgil peeked at the cover. “Sherlock Holmes?”

Logan gripped the book tighter and didn’t say anything.

“Sherlock Holmes?” Virgil said again, trying to act like he thought Logan hadn’t heard him.

Logan sighed irritably.

Virgil tried to shove down the spike of anxiety that came with Logan being irritated with him. “Sherlock Holmes?” he said a third time.

Logan looked up at Virgil. “Yes,” he said tightly.

“Any good?”

“Of course it’s good,” Logan said. “It’s Sherlock Holmes. They are books about an excellent detective that I very much admire. I always follow his example when trying to figure something out.”

Virgil swallowed and tried to paste a casual smirk on his face. “You think you’d be a better detective, then.”

Logan narrowed his eyes. “Excuse me?”

“Well, if you really do that, I thought you’d have noticed what’s really going on around here by now, that’s all,” Virgil said casually, squeezing the snake hidden in his pocket and ignoring the shame pooling in his stomach.

“What are you talking about?”

Virgil would have said something in reply if he hadn’t heard footsteps coming from nearby that sounded suspiciously like Not-Janus. (Yes, Virgil had memorized what the other side’s different footsteps sounded like. Doesn’t everyone?)

“Oh, nevermind. I’m sure I’m just being an asshole,” Virgil said, standing up. “Go ahead and get back to your reading.” He sank out to his room.

The second that Virgil got there he collapsed back against his door. “Nope,” he said aloud to his room. He banged his head lightly back against the door. “Nope, hated that.”

He stayed there for a couple of seconds and tried to get rid of the sense of shame and guilt that was growing in his chest. He’d hated that just as much as he thought he would. Hopefully it would be worth it when Logan started noticing something going wrong.

For the moment, he decided not to push his luck by going to see Remus again. It was probably the case that Not-Janus hadn’t bothered to mess with his feelings towards Virgil yet because none of the light sides liked him anyway, but Virgil didn’t want to go see Remus enough for him to change his mind.

Instead, he put his headphones on, turned on his favorite Evanescence album, and threw his hood over his head, sitting down on his bed to try and relax for at least a couple hours.

Thankfully, his day turned out to end much better than it began, when he got a knock on his door just before he was going to go get dinner.

He opened it to find Logan standing there with a plate of chicken and peas. “Uh. Hi,” Virgil said hesitantly.

“This is for you,” Logan said, shoving the plate in Virgil’s face and walking into the room as if neither of these were rude behaviors at all. He shut the door after him.

“What in the world did you find out?” Logan asked, turning around to face Virgil again.

Virgil raised an eyebrow and walked over to his desk, setting the plate on it. “Huh?”

“You were right. Something is off. Janus earlier made a remark about murder that Patton absolutely should have objected to, even if it was just a joke, but he didn’t say anything. He keeps giving Roman these casual compliments that seem a little bit intentional, if one thinks about them for a moment. I… I understand why you have concerns, Virgil. What did you find out, and how?”

Virgil could kiss him for a second there. He had to try very hard not to actually jump for joy, because he was likely still on thin ice with him, and he didn’t want to push him too much too quickly. “Okay, um, well here’s the thing,” he said. He considered for a second what he was going to say and how to phrase it. “I don’t think Janus is supposed to be here,” he said. “I… I don’t know if he took the place of someone else, or if he’s here by mistake, or what, but I don’t think it’s a good thing. Not that I think it’s his fault,” he added quickly, just to try and cover all his bases.

Logan looked unsure. “I don’t know. You don’t know him very well. How can you be sure?”

“Uh… fight or flight?” Virgil said hesitantly. “I dunno, it’s an instinct.”

Logan gave that a second of thought. Virgil wished he had any idea what he was thinking.

“Fair enough,” Logan said finally, and some of the tension in Virgil’s chest released. “I can’t say I agree with you, but it would be foolish to ignore an instinct from you without at least hearing you out. We… have tried that in the past, after all.” Logan’s face twisted up for a moment as he seemed to be thinking about something again. Virgil wished again that he could read him better.

Finally, Logan straightened up. “I will endeavor to help you figure out what is going on, Virgil. Do you have any plans in mind?”

Virgil started to grin.

…

Remus was sitting at the kitchen table when Virgil appeared. He beamed over him. “I gave my character an ally.”

Remus glanced up at him and raised an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

Virgil nodded and plopped down in the seat, feeling a wave of relief rolling off of him. “You were right about what I had to do, it was the right call.”

“Oh, so you did decide to be a manipulative dick. That’s awesome.”

Virgil stilled, and glanced at Remus. “What?”

“Yeah, Janus came down and explained what was really happening, Virgey. You used me to mess with everyone? Normally I’d be proud, but you didn’t even tell me about it!”

“Janus… Janus told you?” Virgil asked weakly.

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised,” Remus muttered, glaring away. “Since when does anyone want to include me, right?”

Virgil felt a little sick. “Hang on, wait, Remus—”

“Oh, get out of here before I run you through with my morningstar.”

“Will you let me—”

“Your intestines will fall out of your stomach!” Remus snapped, turning to glare at Virgil again. “And I’ll put them in the fridge so I can eat them in my pasta! I think it’ll add a nice texture!”

Well, now he felt more than a little sick. “Remus, would you just—”

“And your liver next! I wonder if it’ll taste like animal liver? You know, I’ve never tried cannibalism in real life before, I’m sure it’ll be fun!”

“Remus, stop!” Virgil cried, shoving his hands over his ears.

“Then  _ get out!” _

Virgil sank out before Remus could say anything else.

He ended up in his room, and was about to push his hand over his mouth and collapse onto his bed when he saw a very unwanted guest sitting in his desk chair. Dammit. He should have checked for other sides before he came.

“What are you doing here?” Virgil snapped, glaring at Not-Janus and squeezing the snake in his pocket in order to not start freaking out while he was talking to him.

“I’m impressed,” Not-Janus said with a smile. “I didn’t think you’d actually try going to Remus for help. When I looked at your memories you didn’t seem to like him very much.”

“You looked at my memories? You fucking creep, how did you even do that?”

“Why? Do you miss your snake friend? I thought reliving memories over and over was more Patton than you.”

“Shut the  _ fuck _ up,” Virgil snapped.

“I wouldn’t try to antagonize me if I were you,” Not-Janus said with a smile. “I can think of four other sides who wouldn’t appreciate that right now.”

Virgil grit his teeth. “I’m going to beat you. I’m going to break you in half.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Not-Janus said, smiling even wider. “You wouldn’t want to hurt your snake boy, would you?”

Virgil narrowed his eyes. “What are you talking about?”

“What, did you think I could just make an entire body that I could just walk around your mindscape with? It’s not nearly that simple. You do know that I’m essentially a  _ virus.” _

“Well, that’s news to me, but whatever. What the fuck does that have to do with Janus?”

“I can’t just make a new body,” Not-Janus repeated with a smirk. “I have to take over an old one. Why do you think you haven’t been able to find Janus anywhere?”

Virgil’s eyes widened. “Are you saying you’re fucking possessing him? You… you don’t look anything like him.”

“Of course not. Why would I make myself look like a cliché villain when I have complete control over Janus’ body, which includes appearance? The point remains, If you ‘break me in half,’ well, then you can say goodbye to Janus too.”

Virgil growled. “If you fucking hurt him—”

“Oh would you look at that, someone suddenly cares!” Not-Janus said, clapping his hands together with glee. “I was under the impression that you despised Janus. That’s what he thinks, after all.”

Virgil kind of wanted to throw up a little bit again. He bit his lip hard enough to draw blood.

“And weren’t you listening?” Not-Janus said, standing. “The only one who can hurt Janus right now is you, sweetheart. But if you want to kill me, go ahead. I won’t fight.” He spread his arms and smiled widely in the way that meant he knew he had Virgil in a hopeless situation.

“I’m… I’m going to beat you anyway,” Virgil said weakly. “I’ll find a way.”

“I wish you the best of luck,” Not-Janus said. He patted Virgil gently on the cheek and walked past him, out the door into the hallway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings: Remus using disgusting imagery to try and get another side to leave, at the very end of the chapter.


End file.
